Orange-bellied Euphonia

The orange-bellied euphonia is 9 to 11 cm (3.5 to 4.3 in) long and weighs 9 to 16 g (0.32 to 0.56 oz). It has a thick stubby bill. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies E. x. xanthogaster have a deep yellow forehead; the patch extends to well beyond the eye. The rest of their head and their nape are glossy blackish. Their upperparts, wing coverts, and flight feathers are glossy blue-black. The upper side of their tail is blue-black and the underside gray with white inner webs on the outer two to three pairs of feathers. Their throat is purplish black. Their underparts are yellow with an inconspicuous ochre tinge on the belly. Adult females have an olive-yellow forecrown, an olive mid-crown, and a gray hindcrown and nape. The rest of their face is olive. Their upperparts are mostly olive with olive to dusky upperwing coverts. Their primary coverts are dusky. Their flight feathers and tail are dusky with olive feather edges. Their throat, chest, and the middle of their breast are gray. Their sides and flanks are olive to olive-yellow and their belly and undertail coverts buff-tinged gray. The other subspecies of the orange-breasted euphonia differ from the nominate and each other thus:

E. x. oressinoma: larger than nominate but otherwise much the same E. x. chocoensis: smaller than nominate; male has faint ochraceous tinge on underparts E. x. …

The orange-bellied euphonia has a disjunct distribution, though the ranges of some subspecies are contiguous. The subspecies are found thus:

E. x. oressinoma: Colombia's Western and Central Andes E. x. chocoensis: from extreme eastern Panama south on the Pacific slope of the Andes through Colombia into northwestern Ecuador's Esmeraldas and Imbabura provinces E. x. badissima: Serranía del Perijá on the Colombia-Venezuela border; Venezuelan Andes from Lara state southwest and into northeastern Colombia E. x. quitensis: from Pichincha Province in western Ecuador south just into northwestern Peru's Tumbes Department E. x. dilutior: from southeastern Colombia into northeastern Peru's Ucayali River valley E. x. cyanonota: central Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon between the Juruá and Tapajós rivers E. x. brunneifrons: southeastern Peru's Cuzco and Puno departments E. x. ruficeps: west-central Bolivia's La Paz and Cochabamba departments E. x. brevirostris: eastern Colombia's Magdalena River valley and east of the Eastern Andes from Norte de Santander Department south through eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru; from there east across most of southern Venezuela into central Guyana and northwestern Brazil to the Uaupés River E. x. exsul: Venezuelan Coastal Ranges from Carabobo state east to Miranda state E. x. …

The orange-bellied euphonia feeds primarily on small fruits, and also includes smaller amounts of arthropods in its diet. It mostly forages in pairs and regularly joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It also shares fruiting trees with other species. In the forest it forages primarily from the mid-level to the canopy but often down to the shrub layer in clearings and on edges.